Surely I am not the only woman who would chose the man, not the bear?

[Idpicktheman]

You know that, would you rather meet a man or a bear in the woods thing?

I would choose the man.

I've hiked in the Rockies where there are bears. If you come across a bear, you have surprised and startled it. All the stories I heard of people being attacked in the Rockies were of people who have surprised bears with their appearance. I blew a whistle every couple of minutes when I hiked to make sure a bear was not surprised by my appearance. Therefore I think if I met a bear in the woods, there is a good likelihood it would attack me.

I also walk in the woods a lot in the UK as I live in a semi-rural area. I regularly come across men and they either ignore me or say hello as they pass and carry on walking their dog/ cycling/ or mountain biking.

So whilst there is a chance a man would attack me, I think the probability is that they would not.

But whilst there is a chance the bear would amble off and leave me alone, the probability is that it would attack me.

So I would chose the man.

( I realise the point of this though experiment is to show that women think this through, because both can be dangerous to them, whereas men instantly say' well, I'd chose the woman obviously' because women are not a danger to them : but I have seen a lot of women instantly saying ' the bear!' but, being literalistic about the actual answer, in all honestly, the bear is more likely to attack you than the man.)

Of course I'd choose the man and anyone who says they wouldn't is posturing to make a point.

Me too, I've always walked home at night. I used to regularly walk home 2-3 miles from a nightclub.

That isn’t what I said. Not at all. Read the post. The answer is there. It’s actually really clear. I spell it out. Very clearly.

Quite. And this what I articulate clearly in my OP and which explains my answer.

Some men do want to hurt you because they basically think hurting women is fun.

No woodland bear species want to hurt you for fun.

I walk in the dark on my own sometimes in London. I travel solo to countries like India, Thailand, Cambodia and Turkey. It's not because I think men are great. It's because I won't restrict my life because of men, within reason of course. I take precautions.

I'd choose the bear. A bear isnt going to randomly attack me.... if I stay away from the bear it will stay away from me, I'd climb a tree and make loud noises every few minutes so any wild animal knew I was around

If I was in a forest with a man I would not be alerting him that I was hiding in a tree. I'd be as quiet as I could and pray to God he didnt see me

Online theres videos of bears running towards people, the people start shouting and gesturing and the bear runs away. If a man was running towards me and I started shouting and gesturing, all it would do is Make him angrier and want to shut me up

I wouldnt survive if a man or a bear attacked me. I'm 5'1 and I weigh 7st. Either could easily kill me but I'd still rather risk being in a forest with a bear than a man. The bear wont seek me out, the man would

Yet all these men have preyed on women deliberately. We know from the Sarah Everard case that men escalate from low-grade sexual offending to worse sexual offending, so it's likely that those men will escalate over time.

Woodland bears attack because you've scared them. Don't scare the bear, you're safe.

How do we know if any given man is one of that "vast majority" who don't want to hurt women? What if he's one of the far-too-many who does hurt, rape or kill women, or would do so if he was sure he wouldn't be caught? NAMALT (and cries of "misandry") ignores the horrendous results when a particular man is, in fact, like that.

No. Other people described encounters and I didn’t question them. I just found that particular post dubious.

Same. I make the choice to take the risk because the alternative is to not exercise my freedom.

I think people are a bit off track because you changed the terms of the original proposition, which simply asked if you'd rather be alone in the woods with a bear or a man. You changed it to, would you rather meet a man or a bear. But I think a lot of pp wanted to respond to the original meme, so it caused some confusion.

Hmm
My first thought on this was obviously man.
If I had a man and a bear infront of me I would choose man.
99% of men are not a threat. I don't know much about bears, i mean do we even have them in the UK?
But then I thought more about it and I 100% would not go walking round the woods solo, or at least would not feel comfortable while I was there.........and why wouldn't I? Well its not cos I'm worried about bears locally.

So what I found interesting is the question wasn't man v bear for me its that I would actively avoid going on that walk in the first place. Sad isn't it 😞
I can understand why some men are upset by it, all the good men who would just want to help being tarred with the same predatory brush knowing their intentions are good. But they just haven't had the same experiences and advice given by schools, police, parents around personal safety. So they just don't understand.

I was talking to my mum and dad the other day about something similar, but not this specific thing. My Dad said he has crossed the road to avoid being behind a lone female so she wouldn’t worry that there was a man behind her and possibly following her. He is in his mid 70s and I never knew that he would do that as he never mentioned it before. To him it isn’t a big deal in that it is just a small thing that might make a woman feel safer. There will be a lot of men that are like that, and it is those men that understand why a woman might answer bear and not try to invalidate their feelings even though they have never experienced this type of fear.

Thank you @MagentaRocks that's exactly the response a "safe" man would make. He sounds very aware and thoughtful.

It's been quite telling seeing posters who think women should just stop being paranoid or change their behaviours.

Bears generally won't attack you unless they feel threatened, though - men just attack you for shits and giggles.

Men I have talked to about this have all said that if they were in our position, they would choose the man - in contrast to what many women are choosing. Yet men are far more likely to be violently attacked or killed by other men than we are.
Why is it we are more scared of men than men are, when it's men that are far more likely to get attacked/mutilated/murdered?

Men are generally "just" attacked whereas women risk torture, kidnap, sexual assault and worse.

To me, it's interesting that, when asked who they'd rather their daughter met in the woods, they don't automatically say "the man".

Men kill far more men than women, though.

I understand that.

I think you're missing the point, though - which is that there are millions of women who would rather be alone in the woods with a predatory wild animal than with another member of the human race because they're so scared.

You'd seriously rather a bear eat you alive an rest the flesh of your body than be attacked by a man?

Frankly, I'd rather be stabbed by that, and that's on the very remote possibility that some random male hiker is homicidal and an rapist...

This question is silly. Like would you do x (eat an eyeball or something) for a million pounds. And everyone says no.

This question is silly

The point is that it shouldn't even be a question. No woman should be so scared of men that they'd rather take their chances with a predatory half-ton wild animal. Yet they are.

...because it's a dumb inconsequential social media question, not real life or some thoughtful philosophical debate.

If you would rather see a bear in the woods than another hiker, that's natural selection.

...because it's a dumb inconsequential social media question, not real life or some thoughtful philosophical debate.

It can be both.

Wit went off track with that poster because she was intent on not reading. I replied directly to her saying I was talking about meeting a bear and a man and repeatedly told her to read my OP. Everyone else has been just fine to converse with. It’s somewhat irritating when someone repeatedly challenges you yet refuses to read what you have actually written. If people chose not to read what is written even when directed, that’s on them.